Secondary and higher education in the South for whites and negroes
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Horace Bumstead was an American Congregationalist minister and educator. He is noted for his service as a second President of Atlanta University 1888-1907 and was an acting President 1886-87. He is also regarded for being the first white men in the United States who fought for educational rights of African Americans.
Background
Horace Bumstead was born on September 29, 1841 and was the son of Josiah Freeman Bumstead, a Boston merchant, author of a series of text-books, and for many years before the Civil War superintendent of a negro Sunday-school.
Nathaniel Willis, his maternal grandfather, was founder, publisher, and editor of the Boston Recorder, said to be the earliest of religious periodicals, and of the Youth's Companion.
His mother, Lucy Douglas (Willis) Bumstead was sister to the poet Nathaniel Parker Willis.
Education
Bumstead was prepared for college at the Boston Latin School, and in 1863 was graduated with honor from Yale College. He then entered a training school for officers and, after passing an examination before a military board at Washington, was commissioned major of the 43rd Massachusetts Regiment of colored troops.
In the fall of 1866 he entered Andover Theological Seminary and completed the course there in 1870. For fourteen months he traveled and studied in Europe, spending the greater part of two semesters at the University of Tubingen.
Career
His military service extended from April 1864 to December 1865. Although only twenty-three years old and with scant preparation for such responsibility, he was during most of the time in command of the entire regiment and had active service around Petersburg and Richmond.
He was ordained a Congregational minister and for three years was pastor of a church in Minneapolis. A classmate in Yale, Edmund Asa Ware, was president of Atlanta University, recently organized for the higher education of negro youth. After accepting an invitation to join in this work, Bumstead moved to Atlanta in October 1875 and became an instructor in natural science.
He continued in this department till 1880, was professor of Latin from 1880 to 1896, acting president 1886-87, and president from 1888 to 1907 when he retired and was given a pension by the Carnegie Foundation.
Bumstead and Atlanta University are in this respect to be contrasted with Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee Institute.
Achievements
Horace Bumstead was an achieving scholar throughout his life. While studying at Boston Latin School, he won the Benjamin Franklin silver medal, an award given to extraordinarily curious, innovative, and motivated individuals at the start of their careers, who deserve greater recognition, encouragement, and mentoring.
Later he became a second President of Atlanta University 1888-1907 and was an acting President 1886-87. As president Bumstead spent much of his time in the North raising funds (about $30, 000 yearly) with which he carried on the work of the institution.
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Religion
He was ordained a Congregational minister and for three years was pastor of a church in Minneapolis.
Views
While he believed in industrial education for negro youth he maintained that the leaders and teachers of the race should have opportunity for the broadest culture and to this conviction Atlanta University became committed.
Personality
He was a man of dignity, courtesy, and of high devotion to the educational work for which he considered himself "almost foreordained. "
Connections
In January 1872 he married Anna M. Hoit, daughter of Albert G. Hoit, portrait painter.
